Just came across this article in the National Law Review about the importance of follow ups. Although it is geared towards lawyers (which you had probably already guessed from the publication name), it has some good thoughts on the follow up process.

The most important point was that there are 3 times to stop following up in your sales process. Their Mantra:

Never stop following up with prospects! There are only 3 things that should ever stop you from doing your follow up. That is when prospects either:

Are you struggling to close business after working hard to generate prospects? Do you want to know how to further improve your close rate? Whichever it is, you will need to work on your follow up strategy in your sales process.

In this article I’m going to explain why follow ups are important in the sales process as well as some tips on how to do it. You may already be following up on prospects but do you have a complete strategy? By the end of this article, you will feel inspired to review your follow up strategy with fresh eyes.

Build Trust With Your Prospects

One of the main reasons why follow ups are important is because they help you build trust with your prospects. If you don’t make regular contact with your prospects, they won’t believe that you have their best interests or feel that you care about them. This probably couldn’t be further from the truth but because you haven’t had the time to follow up on their interest and enquiries, that is how they now feel.

Answer Questions Your Prospects Have

If you have products that don’t tend to be impulse buys then your prospects will most likely have questions before they make up their mind. Even though your prospects might have questions, surprisingly they don’t actually ask them. If you have a list of the most common questions asked by prospects then you can send new prospects a follow up email with a list of frequently asked questions. Instead of waiting for the prospect to come to you, you are taking the information to them.

Close More Business

One of the more obvious reasons why follow ups are important is because they will help you close more business. Our study has found that 80% of sales take a minimum of 5 follow ups to close yet 48% of salespeople quit after the initial contact. While it may seem easier to grab those quick win sales, you could be losing out on revenue from prospects that just simply need a little nurturing.

Some Tips On How To Follow Up

Now that you know why you should be following up with prospects, the question now is how do you do it? With everything else that is going on, it can be a little daunting having yet another strategy to implement. There are tools online that you can use to make this process a lot easier such as Followup Pal. Followup Pal can automatically send a set of tailored emails to your prospects to nurture them and close more business for you.

Ask Open Ended Questions

When you are following up with prospects, the best way to get them engaged is to ask open ended questions. Asking questions that will only get a yes or no response will not help to start a conversation. You want to get to know them and learn what their pain points are and what their goals are. This way, you will be able to further improve your marketing messaging and how you follow up with new prospects.

Make Sure Your Follow Ups Are Consistent

Consistency is key when it comes to follow ups so that your prospects come to be familiar with who you are. For example, if the first email you sent them was from “Eugene Wilson – Sales Manager” then the rest of your emails should be from “Eugene Wilson – Sales Manager”.You may also consider keeping the timing of emails consistent as well as the design of them too.

Be Speedy About It

The best way to get prospects to engage with your follow up emails is to send them while they are already thinking of your brand and your product. There is no point in waiting the next day or the next week because they have already moved onto a competitor by then. A recently study by Hubspot found that those who send out a follow up email quickly are 7 times more likely to have meaningful conversations with their prospects. It is best to send them information when they are most interested in your product.

Continue To Analyze And Improve

The best way to continue to improve on your close rate is to constantly analyze your follow up strategy, split test it and make improvements. Nothing will ever change if you don’t make changes so take some time to regularly review where improvements can be made so you don’t lose out on sales.